What does a robust methodology for poaching assessment reveal about the alarming rise of illegal activities in Kahuzi-Biega National Park? This study uncovers critical insights into the underlying causes of poaching, reshaping our understanding of conservation challenges and community engagement strategies.
Rwanda Polytechnic
Integrated Polytechnic Regional College-Kitabi (IPRC-Kitabi)
Assessment of Illegal Activities in Kahuzi-Biega National Park from 2014 to 2018
Project presentation
Evaluating Illegal Activities in Kahuzi-Biega National Park: A Comprehensive Study from 2014 to 2018
Robert Ciza Mundere
Supervised by: Prof. Niyonsaba Ingabire Pascaline
2019
Kahuzi-Biega National Park is one of nine national parks in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and one of five parks on the Heritage List. Indeed, poaching activities in all their forms are the threats that Kahuzi-Biega faced many years ago until today, which prompted us to make a possible evaluation. The case study covered the entire Kahuzi-Biega National Park.
In this study, different techniques were used, including documentation, interviews, questionnaires, and computer with the Excel tool for producing images. My work had one main objective and three specific objectives, the main objective of which was to assess the extent of poaching in Kahuzi-Biega National Park. The specific objectives were to: Identify the trend of poaching activities and their causes within Kahuzi-Biega National Park, Identify the impacts of poaching activities on biodiversity and define provisional solutions to poaching activities in the Kahuzi-Biega National Park.
Over the course of the study, the data analyzed showed that (48.4 %) of the respondents stated that poverty was the cause of illegal activities in the context of wanting to meet basic needs, such as eating and buying clothes, because having no means to meet those needs, not even having enough arable land to grow crops and feed themselves.
To this is, (5.9%) of respondents added ignorance according to the same respondents, because so far some people have not understood the sustainable use of resources but also the importance of conservation. (35.7% )of respondents said that illegal activities in KBNP are the result of armed conflict because for rebel troops have remained in some parts of the country because they are still armed; hunting with rifles, digging minerals and other activities.
( 9.5%) of respondents have proved that the current situation that KBNP is working with the pygmies results from the fact that the latter are instrumentalised by those who profit from it because henceforth, they did not destroy the park like today and were always calm. On the other hand, people are searching for animal protein (meat) for consumption solely as a cause of poaching activities in the Kahuzi-Biega National Park.
In view of all this, we have recommended to the General Direction of the Congolese Institute for Conservation of Nature (ICCN), through the managers of the KBNP to strengthen the police by all mechanisms to help them to protect this biodiversity in the midst of bad destruction, to ensure the good management of the personnel especially the people on the ground in order to avoid the extinction of some emblematic species and other conservation targets, because that is one of the reasons why elephants are absent at high altitude.
In this study, the result from respondents showed how Kahuzi-Biega National Park should be conserved sustainably, they propose some solutions including the sensitization to the local communities who are near the park, by showing them the importance of the park, to make them understand how there are many services that KBNP produces for their interest like foreign money, water, air; increasing the punishment and create the specific law offenders and appropriate law of punishing the poachers, to increase the number of park rangers at each patrol post and provide them all possible field materials, the involvement of the central and local government in law enforcement and by providing salary to the park staff and park rangers; also the involvement of all stakeholders is crucial.
Key words: Poaching activities, Kahuzi-Biega National Park
Chapter One: General Introduction
Introduction:
In this chapter, we give an overview of how poaching has started in recent years and how to deal with it as it harms animals and decreases the size of their population, and some of them have disappeared from the world. This chapter also describes the problem of poaching in the DRC and how Protected Areas are affected by the local community around national parks. This section also includes goals, research questions that covered our study. This section also covers the introduction to the study area and its surroundings; the purpose of the study is presented in the study area and the reason why we conducted this study.
Background of the study
Wildlife is facing serious challenges world over, and many fauna and flora species are continuously driven closer to extinction on daily basis. Less than nine percent of the earth has been set aside for protected areas and there is constant pressure from rampant development and commercial activities to further reduce these areas (Henry Mmaduabuchi Ijeomah 2012).
Increased human and cattle population in most countries is continuously putting more pressure on forest resources and has ultimately caused fragmentation and degradation of wildlife habitats. Poaching and illegal trade in wildlife has become an organized, lucrative and a capital intensive business, with trafficking routes extending from remote national parks and reserves, where animals are trapped and killed, to major urban centers where they are sold and consumed (Goodall, 2011).
Appeared about three million years ago, the hunt has continued since, in parallel with other nurturing activities such as breeding. From the middle Ages, hunting is the privilege of the nobility linked to the right of ownership of land. After the French Revolution, it democratizes massively undermining the forest ecosystem. Having become mainly a leisure activity, it now obeys strict laws for the preservation of wildlife and its environment. (https://www.alimentarium.org).
Wildlife crime is an important issue, led by dangerous international networks. Trafficking in wildlife and its animal parts is very similar to trafficking in weapons and illegal drugs. By its very nature, it is almost impossible to obtain reliable figures on the value of illegal wildlife trade. Experts in the wildlife trade monitoring network estimate that it is in the hundreds of millions of dollars (Shadow, 2001).
In 1970s the Black rhinoceros population decreased from 6500 to less than 1500 in 1980s (Emslie & Brooks, 1999). The decline was so huge to an extent that Parker and Martin (1979) pointed it to poaching for horns. The most notable decrease were in Kenya in the Maasai area. In a quest to stop poaching the Kenyan government attempted to turn the Maasai settlement lands into an area exclusive to wildlife and tourism (Western and Grimsdell, 1979).
However, this was viewed by the Maasai people as a direct confrontation and they speared rhinos. The rhino spearing was only done as a response to the government action of taking their land (Western, 1973). Consequently, the government stance of conversion of land for commercial gain made rhino horns profitable, thereby attracting poachers outside Kenya (Martins, 1980).
In a quest to squash poaching the Kenyan government implemented anti poaching methods. However, the rhinos continued to decline because most rhinos were killed outside tourist viewing reas and mostly speared (Western, 1982).
In the DRC, since the year 1996 until in 2003, the Democratic Republic was a country torn apart by armed conflicts, which gave birth to different troops of rebels, militias, refugees, displaced from wars and local populations and it was installed in the different protected areas throughout the country until today. The latter practice Poaching, Agriculture, Livestock, Fishing, Logging and Mining, thus causing destruction, habitat fragmentation or deforestation, the extinction of certain species such as elephants and rhinos killed for their horns and wildlife and / or floristic species, killings for the staff once in patrols and in clashes with poachers because doing their activities illegally with guns not only hunting, but also guns of war.
Due to this high commercial value of wildlife products, tension in protected areas is continuously increasing at a global scale. Poaching, therefore, has become more universal and a frequently occurring phenomenon. From the depths of the oceans to the highest mountaintops, no environment is spared from poaching and all wildlife species can be drawn into the vast illegal trade (Granby Zoo, 2012).
Problem statement
In the DRC, in Africa and generally in the world, to obtain food, building materials and other needs, man always resorts to the exploitation of the raw material which comes mainly from nature. On the eve of the new millennium, ignorance of the importance of biodiversity by humans is one of the major global problems that today requires more debate especially when we know that certain regions of our planet once prosperous people are currently suffering from natural calamities such as drought and desertification, which break their environmental economies, failure to respect fundamental biocenotic laws and the refined use of natural resources have led to ecological disruption (IUCN 1990).
Sometimes protected areas are fertile places, yet these areas should not be sacrificed for reasons of immediate survival. Biological resources feed us, clothe us, provide medicine and shelter, and so on.
The degradation of biological diversity that we are witnessing is essentially a consequence of human activities. Man is undoubtedly a factor responsible for the loss of biodiversity. All kinds of activities carried out by it in nature are at the base of this destruction. KBNP faces a range of illegal activities such as ore digging, felling of trees for wake and trash, trapping of animals, bamboo cutting, carbonization, etc.
Objectives
- General objective
The general objective of this research was to assess the extent of poaching activities in Kahuzi-Biega National Park.
Specific objectives
Identify the trend and causes of illegal activities in Kahuzi-Biega National Park; Identify the impact of poaching on the biodiversity found in the park;
Establish provisional solutions to illegal activities in protected areas in general, and in the KBNP in particular.
Research questions
This research sought to answer the following questions:
- What is the trend and causes of illegal activities in the Kahuzi-Biega National Park?
- What are the impacts of illegal activities on biodiversity?
- What are the potential solutions for poaching in Kahuzi-Biega National Park?
Scope of the study
This study was conducted in the Kahuzi-Biega National Park, a protected area near the city of Bukavu, in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. It is located near the west shore of Lake Kivu and the Rwandan border. Founded in 1970 by Belgian photographer and curator Adrien Deschryver; the park is named after two dormant volcanoes, the Kahuzi and Biega Mountains, located within its boundaries.
With an area of 6,000 square kilometers, Kahuzi-Biega is one of the largest national parks in the country. Located on both mountainous and lowland terrain, it is one of the last refuges for the rare species of eastern lowland gorilla (Gorilla beringei graueri), an endangered category inscribed on the map IUCN Red List.
The park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, inscribed in 1980 for its unique biodiversity of rainforest habitat and its eastern lowland gorillas.
The illegal exploitation of this park, which is the subject of our study dates back a long time, it will be difficult with time we have to approach this study since the genesis of this exploitation to the present day. As a result, we were required to make an assessment of the poaching activities that occurred in the Kahuzi-Biega National Park from 2014 until 2018, a five-year period. This study took three months, from April until June 2019.
Significance of the study
This work is of considerable scientific interest because it is not only a database but also an important tool for managers, researchers, and anyone else managing private or public affairs with the fight against the degradation of the environment, it is also an interpellation to the authorities having the management of the forest concessions in their attributions to realize the misdeeds of the poaching activities on the environment with its multiple consequences as the effect of greenhouse thus contributing to global warming and other. Knowledge of poaching motivations in Kahuzi-Biega National Park will also be extremely important in developing more effective anti-poaching measures to deter poachers.
This project will help me complete my studies and diploma in Wildlife Management at IPRC Kitabi. Once my research is complete, the document I have produced will be placed in the library so that it can be used for reference.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the main causes of poaching in Kahuzi-Biega National Park?
The main causes of poaching in Kahuzi-Biega National Park include poverty (48.4% of respondents), ignorance (5.9%), and armed conflict (35.7%).
How did the study assess poaching activities in Kahuzi-Biega National Park?
The study assessed poaching activities using various techniques, including documentation, interviews, questionnaires, and data analysis with Excel.
What recommendations were made to combat poaching in Kahuzi-Biega National Park?
Recommendations include enhancing law enforcement, increasing the number of park rangers, community engagement, and creating specific laws to punish poachers.